New Haven Register (New Haven, CT)
American Airlines is ending Tweed flights
Airport has no carrier for October
NEW HAVEN — Lots of attention has focused in recent months on how lively Tweed New Haven Regional Airport will get in early November when a new start-up airline, Avelo Airlines, begins flights to what by the end of the year will be five Florida cities.
But first it will be very quiet at Tweed in October — beginning Friday.
American Airlines — which for years has been Tweed’s one constant commercial airline after taking over the route when it merged with US Airways in 2013 — will fly its last American Eagle flights between Tweed and Philadelphia International Airport Thursday.
American suspended flights last October, then announced in November it would stop service to New Haven completely. It later announced on Dec. 22 that it would resume flights Jan. 5. It agreed to maintain the service at least through Sept. 30 as a string attached to federal stimulus assistance.
Representatives for American could not immediately be reached for comment.
Tweed is not the only airport American is ceasing service to as Thursday. It also will end service to the Williamsport, Penn. airport, among others. Williamsport has been scrambling to attract a new airline.
Tweed New Haven Airport Authority Executive Director Sean Scanlon said he wouldn’t rule out the possibility of American resuming service to Tweed at some point.
“I think as of the last conversation that we had with them, through somebody who was trying to help us with this,” American said “they would reevaluate it in the early part of next year,” Scanlon said.
American’s decision to stop serving Tweed has more to do with American’s own pandemicrelated issues than Tweed’s performance as a destination, he said.
“Our load factors were good,” Scanlon said, pointing out that American’s flights to and from Tweed have been 73 percent full
this month and were 77 percent full last month.
“But what’s happening is that there is a global pilot and equipment shortage,” he said. “I know that they will definitely” be looking at Tweed again, particularly after it extends its runway from the current 5,600 feet to 6,635 feet, he said.
For now, “they are experiencing some significant challenges nationally and my conversations with them have essentially revolved around the fact that they do hope to reserve service at some point in the future here at HVN,” Scanlon said. “I have every confidence that they are going to do that, but they are going to be taking a pause here while they sort out some things on their own nationally.
“I think their decision to pause is more a reflection on things that are happening globally than things that are happening here at HVN,” he said.
As far as commercial service goes, “For the month of October it’s nobody,” Scanlone said. “But that ended up being a silver lining because we have a lot of construction to do” to get the existing terminal buildings ready for the new service by Avelo, which made Tweed its first East Coast base.
“Now we can do a lot of construction,” he said.
Avelo will begin service to four Florida destinations in November, beginning with flight to and from Orlando on Nov. 3, and then adding Fort Lauderdale, Tampa and
Fort Myers in the days that follow. It will begin flights to and from Palm Beach on Dec. 16.
Tweed’s long-term plan calls for a broader partnership with its contract operator, Avports LLC, under which Avports will invest an initial $70 million, and up to $100 million, to extend Tweed’s runway from 5,600 feet to 6,635 feet and build a new, 74,000square-foot, carbon-neutral terminal with 4-6 departure gates on the East Haven side of the airport. A new entrance would be constructed off Proto Drive in East Haven.
Avports also would be fully responsible for Tweed’s operating expenses, eliminating the need for $1.8 million in state and city subsidies.
For the near term, Avports and the authority, with a $1.2 million contribution from Avelo, plan to renovate the existing terminal and the airport’s older administration building into departure and arrival terminals and add 271 parking spaces and several temporary trailers.
The price for that project recently more than doubled from $5 million to up to $11 million.